Guyanese governance: The good, the indifferent and the inexplicable 

Oct 30, 2023 News, The GHK Lall Column

---

Hard truths…

Kaieteur News – It was a pleasant surprise to read “So I am accepting that we probably dropped the ball too” (KN, October 27, 2023).  The utterer of those words was none other than Vice President, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, and the context was the so-called ‘Great Escape’ of Troy Resources with indebtedness of GY$2.6 billion owed to the Government and people of Guyana.

Accepting some responsibility is impressive, and I heartily thank and commend Dr. Jagdeo for his frank admission.  This is leadership as it should be; it is the kind of governance attribute that not only impresses, but which could inspire when it becomes the norm.  As I said myself in an invited comment to Stabroek News, there is no fear in being derided for incompetence, or falling down on the job, or a lapse in judgment, or momentary negligence.  Though none of that quartet of failures is pleasing, if any of such occurred, then there must be the honesty and the basic decency to own up to responsibility, hopefully temporary.  It is clear that Dr. Jagdeo did so.  I overlook the qualifier of “probably” and take his acknowledgement at face value.  It could not have been an easy admission, given that it is over two and a half billion Guyana dollars that are now out of this country’s grasp.

There is hard anger when I contemplate how much those billions could do for Guyanese experiencing great difficulty in coping with their lot in life at the bottom of the economic ladder.  The waste of it all, the slipperiness of Troy Resources, the slackness of those standing over foreign entities like Troy Resources.

Think of this: the Australian company is not some lone individual sneaking out of Guyana via some backtrack channel.  The question that stirs in me is whether the Great Escape of Troy Resources was executed by its own hand alone; or like that US$214 million Exxon audit, there are helpful Guyanese in the swamp.  Guyanese in the right places, and who can make things happen, as in looking the other way.

Having said all of this, I insist that the PNC government also inflicted a costly injustice on Guyana’s treasury and the Guyanese people.  My thinking is that stopping shipments temporarily sends sharp signals about seriousness, plus it also brings the parties to the table, in furtherance of a fresh understanding on the way forward with royalty monies due.  Certainly, the action taken by the Guyana Gold Board could be interpreted (and denounced) as being overreach, and for which I take full responsibility.  But it also furnished the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Guyana with some weaponry, no matter how paltry, to wring something out of Troy Resources.  That that was not the case is to the regret and red-faced result of those in the last government that did not work this situation more aggressively, and a shade more advantageously to Guyana.  Like the Big Bossman Dr. Jagdeo was savvy enough to note and include in his mea culpa, there was that telling word “too”.  It infers and plasters responsibility on both the old PNC and the present PPP Government, which I think is appropriate.

On a less than positive note, I absorb this development of a reprimand and 15 days of pay deducted from Mr. Bobby Gossai of the Ministry of Natural Resources and, more notoriously, of reconfigured Exxon Papers.  I would like a deal such as that: giving up half month pay for close to quarter of a billion (US$211 million) given up, but caught in the nick of time.  I would like to know which mathematician (or economist) came up with this new injustice as just recompense for a massive injustice.  I can’t help thinking that other slippery servants in Guyana, in both the public service and political realms, may now conclude that they have been incentivized to conspire and commit possible crimes.  In other words, they have the assurance, a solid understanding, that big people have their backs, will do right by them.  In the simplest construction: it pays to be the fall guy in Guyana, and with the right side in the commission of wrongdoing.  My advice to Guyanese is don’t worry or cry for Bobby G; he will recoup that paper loss come other payout times, when his loyalty to a certain kind of duty is recalled.  Why even Ambassador Alistair did put in a good word for poor Bobby.

In view of this development masquerading as so-called disciplinary action, Mr. Gossai gets an early Christmas in October, and not once but twice.  In true masquerade fashion, he gets to prance and flounce with abandon from now to December 25th, as he himself gets to celebrate his great escape, like Troy Resources.

Suddenly, Guyana has transformed into Steve McQueen land.  My frank take on this Exxon-gate matter is that Bobby Gossai is the wrong man fingered for the wrong crime, which is now compounded by the wrong penalty.  I guess praise and thanks are due to a benevolent PPP Government for the timely and necessary, and the not so, ah, Catholic.  For those who don’t like that selection, try kosher.

 

---

• Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, Great Escape, Guyanese, PPP Government, President, Stabroek News

---